subterfuge
by Windflicker
Summary: He never liked her, which was why, several years and battles later, it surprised him so much that he loved her. Blue/Green.


_Author's Note: _I had the sudden urge to fic, and this is the result. Always meant to write these two. This is a how-they-got-together story, with a bit of a character study of why their relationship works.

**Verse:** Manga  
**Pairing:** Blue/Green  
**Summary:** He had never liked her, which was why, several years and battles later, it surprised him so much that he loved her. Blue/Green.

* * *

**subterfuge  
**

Green had never liked her, which was why, several years and battles later, it surprised him so much that he loved her.

But at the same time, he supposed that it was inevitable. He was astute enough and intelligent enough to admit that it was something he could see coming the instant they met—not because of "love at first sight" or anything sappy and irrational like that, but because, judging by his personality and by her (insufferable) personality and by the fact that Blue was not the kind of girl to take no for an answer, it was only a matter of time before the events precipitated and it was bound to happen.

Long story short, he had seen it coming from afar. Not admitting it would be confessing to an oversight in his abilities. Altogether, that made it a bit of a lose-lose situation.

Leave it to the pesky woman to corner him like that.

There was no point in fighting it, Green had resigned himself to that at the beginning. But Blue wouldn't have liked it if it hadn't been a challenge; she was more than used to men falling instantly and tripping all over themselves for her charms, and Green supposed that at the end of the day, that was why she had chosen him. He was doing a lot of supposing. That tended to happen with Blue and all her tricks, who kept you guessing at every turn, with every word, every wink and giggle.

But while she could never quite fool Green, who liked to stay several steps ahead of everyone, her included, they had always held a tacit admiration for each other. Behind her silliness and her sometimes all-too-obvious flair for drama, though Green would never admit it out loud, Blue was, at the core, a remarkably intelligent girl. Very little needed to be said between them. She was everything he was not—all flash and glitter, a magician with smoke and mirrors, loud and showy where he was curt, silent, to the point—yet they understood each other better than anyone else.

Green had given the problem some thought, the paradox of his relationship—if you could even call it that—with Blue. Why he could see her tricks moments before she threw them at him. Why they worked so well together in Pokemon battles, in the battle against Team Rocket, when both of them spoke little outside of when they were both around Red. The conclusion he had come to was that, simply put, they thought about problems the same way. Faced with a problem, they would approach it the same way: with their minds, with plans and strategies that could topple sheer strength any day.

And so they approached their relationship, their feelings, whatever it was the same way. They played at it for years, like a cat-and-mouse chase with an inevitable ending that both of them knew was coming.

It came, finally, after the fight on the Sevii Islands. Green liked to say that it was because he was tired, exhausted, and he simply didn't have the energy to deal with her and her obnoxious demands anymore. It was a moment of weakness on his part, he insisted. Blue liked to say that the heat of battle and the looming threat of danger brought out their true feelings for each other.

"Well done, Blue…" he rasped, wiping the back of his hand along his chin.

Her piercing laugh rang out over the roar of distant Pokemon attacks. "Heh heh! But of course! I had it the roughest, since I had to attack from below! In fact, I dare say I'm the most valuable player, ho ho ho!" Even now, when every muscle in his body ached with exhaustion and he struggled to even stay standing, her eyes were twinkling. She stretched out her hand. "Here, your new Pokedex!"

Green reached out to take it.

"Has anyone ever told you," he grunted, because it was their usual banter, but also because his head hurt, "that you talk…too much…"

His hand slipped. Before he could catch himself, he found himself stumbling forward, his balance sweeping out from under him. And that was all it took to cut a chink in her façade; her eyes flared wide with worry, and she leaped forward, arms outstretched, to catch him.

"H-hey! Green! You all right?"

"No, I'm not." He grimaced. There was no point in hiding it. It almost hurt to speak. "But that goes for everyone else here on the Sevii Islands…we're all outta gas…"

Despite himself, he found himself leaning against her. Her hands were warm on his shoulders. And her eyes were warm too, peering into his. He looked back at her, exhausted. There was no trace of the usual mischievous, tricky twinkle left. This was Blue behind the mask, the mask she had been taught to wear as a child.

She helped him down to the ground, her arms guiding him down, and stepped back. Her eyes were still fixed on him, wide with concern, and Green felt something strange and heady in himself that was more than the rush of battle, something that burned, a little, in the shape of where her hands had been on his shoulders.

"The rest is up to Red now," he murmured.

Blue smiled brightly. "Yeah…he's gonna pull it off! I'm sure of it!"

So optimistic, he thought tiredly, as she settled onto the ground next to him and turned forward. That was one difference between them: Green didn't think in terms of optimism or pessimism, only in terms of what, based on his evaluation of the circumstances, was most likely to happen. But Blue could sway those around her, sway the whole damn world and everything it, minding its own business, wanted to do, with only her feelings. Blue, who had lost her parents twice, who had barely had a childhood.

His body ached. He rested his hands on the ground behind him. They were alone, he realized. And for once, Blue was quiet.

It was time to stop running. It wasn't as if Blue had winked at him or thrown him a flirtatious look over her shoulder or told him "I want you to kiss me," and yet he could tell that the chase, which she had taken part in because it was fun and which he had taken part in because he was too wise to waste energy fighting the inevitable, was over.

He turned his head. Her eyes were careful, steady, fixed on a point ahead, as if she were watching the battle.

_Of course I have to be the one to do the work_, Green grumbled to himself, and then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

The old Blue was back by the time he pulled back, her eyes glowing with triumph.

"Ohoho," she laughed. "My, my. Is now really the time for this?"

Green bristled. "Shut up. Isn't this what you've wanted all along?"

"Maybe," Blue drawled enigmatically. "But who would have thought it would have been that easy? I had my bets for way later. But you know what this means, Green."

"What."

"You kissed me first." Now she _did_ wink at him, the other blue eye blazing brilliantly. "This means I _win_."

"Wha—!" Green glared at her. "Pesky woman."

"But hey," she continued cheerily, winding a lock of hair around her finger, "it doesn't mean I won't kiss you second."

As she reached forward and pulled him close to her this time, Green could have sighed. It had been another one of her tricks. Of course. The one trick he had fallen for.


End file.
